508 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



In the beginning of January, 1866, I went to the north-eastern portion 

 of the province, when Puller came with me, and from which we brought a 

 further number of skins and skeletons of New Zealand birds with us on our 

 return, and those new to our collection were now mounted. From the rest 

 78 specimens were selected and sent about the middle of April to Professor 

 L. Agassiz, in Cambridge, Mass., as a return. I note this as being the first 

 large collection sent out by the Canterbury Museum. 



About this time a further sum of £100 was granted for show-cases, 

 which enabled me to have all three sides of the large room lined with them, 

 so that the mounted birds could be placed to advantage, and, moreover, be 

 protected from diist and insects. I find in the notes of the presentations in 

 1865 the following ladies and gentlemen : — Mr. Greorge Sale, then Govern- 

 ment Commissioner in Hokitika ; Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Cox, Orari ; Mr. 

 John Eochfort, Major Scott, Messrs Luxmore, C. J. Tripp, and J. D. Enys, 

 as having presented New Zealand bird-skins and eggs. In 1866 the number 

 of donors reached already 30, so that the space of time at my command 

 precludes me from giving a complete list. 



Leaving Mr. E. L. Holmes, the meteorological oiScer, in charge of the 

 collections, I started in the beginning of March for the sources of the Eakaia 

 in company with the taxidermist. Fuller, who now received a salary from 

 the Provincial Government. After an absence of nearly seven weeks we 

 returned to Christchurch, bringing with us, besides large collections of rocks, 

 minerals, and fossils, an extensive herbarium and about 160 bird-skins, 

 many of which were new to our Museum collection. 



After my return, and with the assistance of several friends, of whom 

 many still at the present time take great interest in the progress of that 

 public institution, new efforts were made that a Museum should be built. 

 The result of our endeavours consisted in the promise of some members of 

 the Provincial Executive, that a sum of money would be placed upon the 

 estimates of the coming session ; however, before the same took place it 

 was evident that such a step would not lead to any success, and the matter 

 was again postponed for another year. 



In the winter of 1866, two collections of bird-skins and some other 

 specimens of natural history were sent to the Australian Museum in Sydney, 

 of which the late Gerhard Ki-efft was at that time curator, and another was 

 forwarded to the Zoological Museum at Vienna. A return collection of the 

 former arrived at the end of September of the same year, and gave addi- 

 tional work to the taxidermist, who, with great zeal and energy, devoted 

 his whole time to the work, accumulating day by day. Of other large pre- 

 sentations worth mentioning here, the Museum received about the same 

 time a fine and extensive collection of rocks of the central part of Otago 



